Shoplifters

This Palme D’Or winner tells of a family of low-income Japanese people gathered in one house in the middle of an unnamed city. Grandma, mum, dad, sister and brother are joined when mum and dad find a lost neglected young girl on her own and bring her into her family and their hardscrabble existence enhanced by a little light shoplifting. As the seasons pass and she gets more used to the tricks and cons that she’s surrounded by, the little scams begin to appear less like fun and games and more like something risky that could see their family falling apart at any moment.

I must admit for a reasonable amount of the length of this film, I found it a little bit aimless – the scenes didn’t seem to be building so much as just a series of events that could end at any time without much change to the film. Events in the last quarter of the film change that, and there’s a couple of surprising revelations (at least one of which is a little melodramatic). But there’s also some deeply emotive performances across the cast, both young and old, and an unflinching view of the hidden modern Japanese underclass. This is not perfect cinema, and I’m not entirely sure it’s really a worthy Palme D’Or winner, but it provides interesting viewing none the less.